


days like dominos (all in a line)

by thecanary



Series: Trans Karev Canon [1]
Category: Grey's Anatomy
Genre: Canon Compliant, Canon Trans Character, Coming Out, Trans Character, Trans Male Character, dont be like casey, i'll make that into a tag if it kills me, idk what are some good tags, trans karev canon, unsafe binding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-22
Updated: 2018-09-22
Packaged: 2019-07-15 13:39:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,401
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16064267
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thecanary/pseuds/thecanary
Summary: Casey passes out at work after a bit of unsafe binding, luckily Hunt and Karev are there.Basically I'm setting the ground work for trans Karev canon and you gotta be here for that. It's a bit of an energy.





	days like dominos (all in a line)

**Author's Note:**

> title from lakeside view apartment suite by the mountain goats. any requests for fics in this universe (of the trans karev canon) will be embraced

_You know this isn't healthy_ Casey's brain reminded him. Of course he knew wearing a binder wasn't a good idea, people working full work days shouldn't wear them, let alone hospital interns working shifts that meant staying at the hospital for full days. But he couldn't imagine walking around the hospital in a sports bra, like all the women there did. A pale blue binder, matching the scrubs he wore so it would blend in, or look like a singlet if anyone ever saw it, that was the solution. It was custom at least, with a zipper down one side so when he rested he could unzip it and breathe at least slightly easier.

Slightly easier didn't really count for much in the long run though. He didn't know really why he was fussing so much about it, it wasn't like he needed to go stealth, he was sure he'd come out eventually, he just didn't want this to be the stepping stone for him to come out on.

 

Running for page after page got exhausting; Casey could feel himself getting shorter for breath, a bit woozy, but he couldn't really do anything about it, standing out was hardly going to fix the problem. He was helping Dr. Karev with a consult, running on fumes at that point, managing to speak for short bursts before having to breathe, his ribcage closing in on itself, or so it felt.

"Melanie Thorpe, 15, had an appendectomy yesterday," Casey managed to get out. "No complications, remaining... for observation."

The pause in his speech was slight, so Casey hoped Karev wouldn't notice, or wouldn't call him on it at least.

"Sounds good to me, Dr. Parker. What about you Mel, any worries?"

The young girl smiled. "Nope, all good. You'll let me know as soon as I can leave, right?"  
"Will do." Alex returned the smile, leaving the room with Casey following behind him.

 

As soon as they were out of the room, Casey's pager went off - trauma in the pit. He went running. Multiple vehicle collision, 4 victims, definitely worth the effort. The other interns, however, had thought similarly, and gotten there first. Casey had arrived just in time to see Roy, self righteous as always, get the chart of the last patient.  _Maybe it's for the best_ Casey thought - his head was pounding, he felt like he was almost wheezing.

 

Not one to draw attention to himself he quickly got himself to a supply room, figuring he'd unzip his binder and sit on the floor for a while. Apparently his body had other plans; each step he took towards the supply room had him dizzier, his eyes hurting, his head spinning, by the time he got on the other side of the door, he was collapsed on the ground, fighting for breath.

 

Luckily Owen found him, and was propping him up, trying to figure out why one of his best interns had collapsed and stopped breathing all of a sudden.

 

The door swung open again. "Hunt, have you seen Parker? He was on my service and not lookin-" Alex stopped when he saw that the man he was looking for was in there already. "Shit." He crouched down with Owen. Casey's pulse felt fine, a bit shaky, but clearly nothing significantly wrong yet.

 

"Do you know what's wrong?" Owen asked.

"I don't think he's breathing well. Could be the flu or asthma or something. Do you know if he has any of that?"

"Not that I know."

 

Alex rested his hand on Casey's chest, the intern still unconscious, feeling for breath sounds. The look of recognition in his eyes didn't registering to Owen, but suddenly he understood the problem. _Stupid kid_ Alex thought, but he quickly shook the thought out of his head. As if he hadn't done the same when he was younger. He lifted up Casey's scrub shirt, knowing he needed to get the binder off without humiliating the intern.

 

With Owen's help he managed to find the zipper on the side, and unzipping it already helped Casey's breathing.

 

"Shouldn't we just cut it off?" Owen asked.

"No way. Shit's expensive. Don't want him to have to deal with that as well," Alex retorted.

 

Alex took off his own white coat, draping it over Casey to keep him covered until they got him out of the binder. His breathing picked up once the rib crushing thing was off him. When Casey came to, his was sat up, his back against the wall of the store room, Owen supporting him and Alex facing him. And his binder was on the floor beside him.

 

"Hey, don't worry kid, you just needed to breathe, okay," Alex said, resting a hand on Casey's shoulder. "We didn't cut it off, it's still fine, though you should hardly be wearing it for full intern shifts."

 

Casey nodded. Guilt and fear on his face, it took him a moment before he spoke.

"I'd really appreciate if neither of you mentioned this," he said. "I don't want to be known as the fainting intern or... anything else about this really."

"Of course not. Your business is your business, we just care want to make sure we're not losing interns of oxygen deprivation." Owen nodded.

"I know how hard it is to keep this kind of thing secret. I'm not about to make your life harder than it needs to be," Alex added.

 

It reached the end of Casey's shift, fortunately not too busy, so he spent most of it sitting on beds in a corridor with the other interns, only having a few cases to get out for. When his shift came to a close, he left quickly, wanting to get home and have some privacy before he figured out what he had to do later. As Casey exited the hospital, he saw Alex leaving just behind him.

 

"Dr. Karev," he called out. "I just wanted to say thanks for earlier. I know I wasn't responsible, so, it means a lot that you were calm about the whole thing."

Alex gave a hum of agreement. "You shouldn't expect any less. And don't worry, I talked with Hunt, he won't bring it up, so long as it doesn't happen again."

"Thanks. I mean, I was planning to come out at some point, you know, as trans, but not like that."

"I know. Don't let anyone force you into coming out though. It can be hard, and that stuff takes time. You're never really done with it either."

 

Casey paused, not sure how to take Alex's comment, not sure if he was reading what Alex was saying right. Alex picked up on it, adding an addendum to what he'd said.

 

"I'm not out here. Not to people who don't need to know, but I think it's good for you to know. Not that I want to be a role model or any of that, hell, you seem to be doing a better job of your intern year than I ever did, but, just know someone has your back."

"You're trans too?" Casey asked carefully.

"Yeah. I didn't come out to a lot of people, it was kind of a need to know thing. At the moment Meredith and Jo know. Not many others. Though a lot of the people who did know are gone. It's not important though. Just, if anyone's giving you any shit, if you need any help, come talk to me."

Casey nodded, not sure how to take in the new information. Even if Alex didn't want to be a role model, it meant a lot that someone like him had managed to do so well for himself.

 

After the few moments of silence, Casey nodded again. "Will do. Thanks, Dr. Karev, really," he said emphatically.

"Don't worry about it, Parker. I guess both of us being here is a good sign. Things are a-changing or something like that."

 

He gave a weak laugh at his own comment before continuing. "I should go, gotta get home, but call me if you ever have a problem that I can help with. I'm not gonna treat you differently because of this though."

"I wouldn't want you to. I'm just glad that this isn't, a game changer in the scheme of things."

 

Alex nodded. "That's pretty good, huh," he said with a smile and wave as he walked to his car.


End file.
